This disclosure relates to boxes for housing electrical connections, particularly for audio, video, and electronic communications devices, but the disclosure includes a housing useful for housing receptacles for 110-volt household current as well. The disclosure relates to providing means for covering receptacles and especially covering receptacles for providing network connections to communications and entertainment equipment. Many such network connection receptacles include a portion that, by design, must protrude from a mounting plate, and to which a signal-carrying cable is connected. The connections are thus made to provide a secure connection while providing proper shielding of the signal-carrying wire or wires within.
New construction, whether for residential or business use, is often pre-wired for computer connections, video cable connections, audio cable connections, and the like. As a rule of thumb, it is typical to install outlets to such cables at several locations within each of several rooms to permit flexibility of using electronic equipment in various locations within the premises or within each room therein. To do otherwise requires the use of extension cables that may be unsightly and hazardous or the tedious installation of such wiring within the walls after the construction is finished. Surface-mounting of the wiring after construction is completed is an unattractive alternative, especially in residential installations.
In addition, the National Electrical Code (NEC), which recites requirements for new construction, now calls for each room to have multiple electrical receptacles spaced no more than ten feet apart around the perimeter of the room. Thus, the electrical receptacles with added communications/entertainment receptacles may be found by some people to be unsightly. Special power receptacles, as for uninterrupted power supplies or even locally-generated power, may have limited capacity and should not be used for appliances having high power requirements or, in some cases, even for lighting. Their intent may be to provide emergency power for electronic equipment to allow for proper shut-down upon failure of the central power source, but their performance may be degraded and their usefulness diluted if other, non-critical loads are applied to them.
There have been developed over several years a variety of connecting devices for providing on a substantially flush-mounted plate covering a junction box various detachable electrical connections for transmitting signals for communications. By design, some of these connecting devices protrude from a mounting plate, presumably to provide proper shielding of the signal-carrying wire or wires within. The protruding portions of these connectors are unsightly, particularly in locations where the connector is unused and not connected to a cable for signal transfer. The installation of such equipment in multiple locations in a room will almost invariably result in unused receptacles that may be seen as unsightly. In addition, the protruding portions of these connections are a potential hazard to personnel who may brush against them and are subject to damage during the process of moving furniture close to the wall within the premises.
Perhaps more importantly, any of these receptacles present an attractive point of concentration for toddlers who seem all too eager to find cavities or holes into which they like to insert small objects, such as crayons, bits of clay, paper, or even food, paper clips, knives, keys, and the like. Covering all unused receptacles appears to be nothing short of mandatory for parents.
One obvious solution is to provide a domed cover that would enclose and hide the unsightly protruding connectors, but such a cover may be seen itself as unsightly and it would remain somewhat of a hazard in that it protrudes into the room.
For recessing an electrical outlet for use behind an electrical wall clock, at least one manufacturer provides a cover plate having a recess. The electrical junction box is mounted in the usual fashion, with its open face flush with the outer surface of the wall, which is a requirement of the NEC. The xe2x80x98devicexe2x80x99, the electrical outlet, thus intrudes more deeply into the junction box, but there is still sufficient space within the junction box for the required wires and connectors, the insulated copper wires being capable of bending to a rather sharp radius without causing failure. The communications cables toward which we address our attention here are not so amenable to making sharp bends without damaging their integrity. They cannot be forced into the confined space that would result from merely recessing the connection receptacles into a standard electrical junction box. A deeper box would have to be used, but electrical contractors are disinclined to keep in their job site inventory junction boxes of varying depths.
It is desirable that a single product be used for both low-voltage receptacles and receptacles supplying household current, usually in the range of 110 to 130 Volts at 50 to 60 Hertz. The NEC prohibits the obvious solution to this problem, that of recessing the receptacles by merely mounting a standard electrical junction box flush with the inner surface of the drywall panel forming a wall and using a recessing trim plate or escutcheon mounted on the outer surface of the panel. This solution would result in a box that is not totally enclosed as it would have a rim of drywall (plasterboard) around the opening under the escutcheon. The NEC requires that all junction boxes be completely enclosed, leaving no exposure to flammable materials, so this solution is unsuitable as not meeting NEC standards.
As used herein, the term xe2x80x98electrical devicexe2x80x99 means any electrical receptacle, electrical connector, or electrical switch connectable to an electrical distribution system for distributing power, data, or other signal by hard-wire means through wires or cables attached to the same.
Thus, the present invention provides a frame adapted to cooperatively mate with and permanently connect with the open face of a standard electrical junction box that is to be mounted approximately flush with the inner surface of wallboard comprising the wall of a room, the frame thereby to extend the effective depth of said junction box to provide adequate space for non-crimping bends in the cable connections to the back of an electrical device or devices mounted therein when such electrical device is installed in said junction box, and the frame thereby further providing the required complete containment of all electrical wiring. Also, as a part of the system provided herein is a escutcheon plate having a recessed center adapted to cooperatively engage an electrical device for the complete encasing thereof to meet the NEC and standards prescribed by the Underwriter""s Laboratory (UL). As a final feature of the invention, a removable cover plate is adapted to completely cover the escutcheon plate to create an unobtrusive appearance when the electrical device is not in use, said cover plate further protecting the electrical device from the insertion of foreign materials.
In an alternative use, the frame of this invention can be used within the guidelines of the NEC and UL for only low-voltage and fiber-optic connections without using a junction box where the NEC does not require wiring to be totally contained within a box. The frame is adapted to be attached to the side or the face (or both) of a wall stud, usually of standard xe2x80x9ctwo by fourxe2x80x9d lumber (much new construction now uses xe2x80x9ctwo by fourxe2x80x9d studs made of steel extrusions), by affixing selectively removable flanges. These flanges are, in the preferred mode, integrally molded as a part of the frame with snap lines adjacent the frame for easy removal of unwanted or unneeded flanges. In such an installation, the flange fixedly supports the frame and the frame fixedly supports the electrical device and the aforesaid escutcheon plate; the escutcheon plate removably supports the aforesaid cover plate, when such cover plate is used.